Kirk grateful returning to home province

When Ty Kirk figured he’d have a chance to play hockey back in his home province this season, he knew the opportunity was too good to pass up on.

The 20-year-old Hamiota product spent the last two years with the Sioux Lookout Bombers of the Superior International Junior Hockey League but had always eyed a role in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League ever since he was four years old.

“That’s always the dream, right? You want to play junior hockey in your home province, and being from Manitoba, it was always a goal growing up to play in the MJ,” said Kirk on Monday. “Obviously, I wanted to come and play closer to home, so it was an easy decision.”

Kirk grew up surrounded by the game. His dad, sister, and cousins all played, and his small-town community of fewer than 2,000 people was still full of talent on the ice, so picking up a stick felt less like a decision and more like a given. His dad, especially, helped shape how he viewed the game and encouraged him to have a creative mindset early on.

“I used to skate around and pretend to play hockey on the carpet when I was, like, really young,” he said. “Then when my parents took me to the rink for the first time and I couldn’t skate, I was apparently devastated. I couldn’t understand why I wasn’t as good as I was at home on the carpet, but I eventually got better with time.”

Kirk cracked the Yellowhead Chiefs U15 AAA team in his 14-year-old season after failing to make the club the year before, mostly due to his size. At five-foot-nine and 155 pounds — and even smaller framed when he was younger — Kirk’s often been one of the smaller players on the ice, so coaches with old-school views on size and physicality were quick to overlook him.

That experience reshaped his mindset, driving him to outwork others and rely on effort, instinct, and a high compete level to stand out.

“Obviously, you just need to try to make up for size in different ways,” he said. “I think now the game’s becoming maybe less about size and more about speed and quickness, but it’s still a bit of a reality, I think. Over that summer, I worked out, got a little bigger, and came back out with a chip on my shoulder and ended up making it that second year and having a pretty good year.”

Kirk tallied five goals and 12 points in 36 games with the Chiefs, but most importantly, he got some invaluable experience playing against and with bigger, faster, and smarter players.

“It was very good for my development,” Kirk said of his first year in AAA hockey. “It just helped a lot, showing me what I need to do to keep up and be effective.”

Kirk reached Yellowhead’s U18 roster the following year, but the COVID-19 outbreak in the province terminated the season. He recorded five goals and eight points in 42 games during his second season with the Chiefs and then more than doubled his point production in fewer games in his final season with the club — grabbing 18 points in 39 games.

“Finally starting to put up a few more points in my final year, it was good for the confidence,” said Kirk. “It definitely helped a lot going into my first year of junior.”

Instead of heading to the traditional route of playing in the MJHL, Kirk decided to spend his first few years post-U18 in the SIJHL with the Bombers. It was a push that came from one of his Yellowhead teammates, Owen Riffel, who played with the Sioux Lookout the year prior and told Kirk they’d have a good team that he could slide into with loads of opportunity.

Kirk decided to give it a shot.

“I followed suit with him, and I really enjoyed it,” he said. “It was a big adjustment, though, now playing against 20-year-olds that are bigger, and it’s just a faster game. I wasn’t used to being on the ice every day either, so that was an adjustment as well, just training lots, but after a couple games, I kind of settled in and got used to it.”

Kirk totalled nine points in 42 games during his first regular season with the Bombers and added one more point during his team’s postseason run, which ended with a Bill Salonen Cup after they defeated the Kam River Fighting Walleye in the championship. He said climbing all the way to the top of the mountain in the playoffs is what’s helped solidify his game even further into a tenacious, speedy forward who can play with an edge and use his hockey IQ to make plays.

“That is something that I carry with me now, knowing the grind of what it takes to play and to win a championship,” Kirk said. “It takes a tight group and a lot of hard work, and it’s hard on the body, but the feeling’s great.”

After breaking out for 28 points in 49 games last season with the Bombers, Kirk is now looking forward to building his winning pedigree by capturing a Turnbull Cup with the Neepawa Titans, who currently sit in fourth place in the West Division with a 3-4 record.

“I’m really enjoying my time in Neepawa so far, I love it there,” he said. “We have a really good group of guys, and it feels like we’re improving drastically each game.”

Neepawa has won its last two games after topping the Winnipeg Blues in a home-and-home series by a combined 6-1 score. Kirk is currently centering the third line alongside Brandon’s Keenan Skrupa and former Chiefs teammate, Addison McIntosh. He’s been happy with his line’s play through seven games but said the trio just needs to keep working on building chemistry as the season goes along.

“We kind of already had a bit of that chemistry going playing with him (McIntosh) before, and then we added Skrupa onto our line, and he plays fast and is always looking for you, so he adds some more speed onto our line,” he said. “We just have to keep grinding and working together, and more results will come.”

From playing on a carpet in his living room in Hamiota to now competing on Manitoba’s most competitive turf, Kirk knows he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“When I first started, this would have been the dream scenario, so to be here now, it’s awesome, and I’m thankful for it,” added Kirk.

» mdelucataronno@brandonsun.com